Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has warned Irish farmers that they can expect "fierce competition in key agricultural markets such as beef and dairy production" in the coming years.
In a keynote address to the Dáil, the first by a European commissioner, Ms Fischer Boel told TDs and Senators that regardless of whether the world trade talks were successful, the Irish should "carry on doing what they are doing, making their supply chain more efficient, producing to the very highest standards and letting consumers know why Irish products are worth a premium".
During a lively 90-minute debate, Ms Fischer Boel took Tom Hayes (FG, Tipperary South) to task when he said that farmers were frustrated by bureaucracy imposed from Brussels.
Mr Hayes had asked how the commissioner expected farmers to stay on the land.
"Young farmers are fed up. There is frustration," he said. Veterinary legislation from Europe was causing "immense problems" for specialist farmers. "That is what is happening in Ireland - not the pious stuff we have had to listen to for hours. The reality is that they are being driven off the land."
Ms Fischer Boel provoked much laughter when she suggested, however, that "if the deputy is making speeches in the countryside, I understand why young people are staying out of the business".
She told Mr Hayes that "I did not want to be rude," but he should say to young farmers "that they have to act like businessmen more than previously and encourage the Government to give us good ideas on how to simplify the system."
The commissioner, a former minister for agriculture and fisheries in her native Denmark, added, however, "there is one point on which I agree with the deputy. We must try to make things simpler because young farmers want to do what they are good at, being in the fields, not behind their desks."
Among the issues raised were questions about the WTO talks, genetically modified foods, labelling and traceability, sugar beet and the security of food supply.
At one stage during the exchanges, as more TDs and Senators intervened, Ms Fischer Boel observed: "I like this. This is a little more undisciplined than what I am used to."
Uniquely, Senators were allowed to take seats in the chamber itself. They heard the commissioner say that rural development was "where one hears the music of the future for agriculture policy", and outline her plans to have a conference next May with young farmers on the future of agriculture after 2013.
She praised Ireland for its quick acceptance of the new realities of Cap reform. "Ireland was the first member state to announce a decision on the national application of 100 per cent decoupling. This is a very healthy way of doing business in the EU," she said.
Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan said the public had a tendency to take for granted the massive benefits of EU membership and "focus on the occasional more negative or restrictive proposal that emerges from Brussels from time to time".
Ireland is the fourth largest food exporter in the EU "and our international reputation as the food island is well deserved", she said.
